Climate activists learn fate for red powder attack on US Constitution at National Archives

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National Archives Rotunda evacuated after climate activists dump pink powder on case holding US Constitution

The climate activist group "Declare Emergency" was behind the act. (Credit: Ford Fischer / News2Share)

A pair of climate activists who vandalized the National Archives Rotunda back in February when they dumped red powder on the encasement protecting the U.S. Constitution have learned their fate. 

Donald Zepeda, 35, of Maryland, and Jackson Green, 27, of Utah, were sentenced to 24 months in prison and 18 months, respectively, in the Feb. 14, 2024, attack on the U.S. Constitution housed at the National Archives in Washington D.C., U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge David Geist of the Washington Field Office Criminal and Cyber Division announced on Monday.

Zepeda pleaded guilty on Aug. 15 to felony destruction of property for dumping a fine red powder over a display case containing the U.S. Constitution in the Rotunda of the Archives building.

The cost of cleaning up after the stunt, which was intended to draw attention to climate change, exceeded $58,000, officials said.

NATIONAL ARCHIVES ROTUNDA EVACUATED AFTER CLIMATE ACTIVISTS DUMP PINK POWDER ON CASE HOLDING US CONSTITUTION

Donald Zepeda, 35, of Maryland, and Jackson Green, 27, of Utah, were sentenced in U.S. District Court to 24 months in prison and 18 months respectively in the February 14, 2024, attack on the U.S. Constitution housed at the National Archives in Washington D.C. (United States Attorney’s Office District of Columbia)

The vandalism also closed the Rotunda for four days, preventing students, visitors, and D.C. residents from visiting. 

Green also pleaded guilty on Aug. 13 to felony destruction of property for the red powder attack on the U.S. Constitution and, in addition, pleaded guilty to one count of injury to a National Gallery of Art exhibit for his Nov. 14, 2023, defacement of a memorial to Black Civil War soldiers, Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s Shaw 54th Regiment Memorial (1900).

Zepeda and Green were also ordered to serve 24 months of supervised release and to each pay $58,600 in restitution. They were also ordered to do community service, which must include cleaning up graffiti. Both were banned from D.C. and all museums across the U.S.

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Green (left) and Zepeda (right) posed for photographs on February 14, 2024, after dumping red powder on a display case housing the U.S. Constitution at the National Archives. (United States Attorney’s Office District of Columbia)

Green had been charged in the assault on the Shaw Memorial only 13 days prior to joining Zepeda in the defacement of the Archives. 

According to court papers, Zepeda and Green are members of Declare Emergency, a group of activists that claim to raise awareness about climate change by engaging in a variety of criminal offenses, primarily in D.C.

Zepeda (left) and Green (right) were photographed covered in red powder after their attack on the U.S. Constitution at the National Archives in Washington D.C. (United States Attorney’s Office District of Columbia)

During the Valentine’s Day stunt, the group retweeted footage of the Rotunda, writing: “We don’t want the end of civilization, but that’s the path we’re currently on.” 

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“Declare Emergency’s nonviolent civil disobedience is love in action everyday, not just on Valentine’s Day,” the group previously wrote. 

The group issued a statement following the sentencing stating they anticipated the sentence to be “harsh.”

“Despite lack of evidence that any damage was done, both Green and Zepeda were charged with felony destruction of government property,” the group wrote in a statement on their website. “The tempera paint powder was selected because it would do no harm, and indeed no powder entered the case.”